Lotsa Loss Lately

    I seem to be going through a phase of loosing stuff lately. Not to say that I couldn’t use a little loss of stuff, as I have way too much. But I’ve been loosing stuff I use somewhat regularly and really didn’t want to loose. Maybe I’m getting old and not paying as much attention, but that doesn’t explain all of it.

    A little over a month ago I went to Charlotte, NC for a 2 day business trip, which went fine. But somewhere on the way back, I lost a farbic glasses case. It had 3 slots for pens, and I had at least 2 of my favorite pens in there, as well as a pair of reading glasses with clip-on sun glasses on them. I carried it hanging off my fanny back by a small carabiner, and I know I lost it after leaving Charlotte, as it fell off when I got out of the rental car and I put it back on. I’m pretty sure I remember it being in the way while driving home from the airport, but the most likely place for me to loose it was in the crowded airplane. Bummer.

    Next up, the major loss, and not really my fault, although the lesson is hopefully learned. Although I am getting better, partly due to the fact that I have been doing more travel the past year, I still bring too much stuff with me when I travel. I get this idea that I’ll have free time while in transit or after hours to play with my ‘toys’, etc. and it never turns out that way. But with the CEC 2007 being more of a geek fest than most of my travels, I loaded a few more toys in my checked bag. Sadly, this list of ‘toys’, see below, was no longer in my checked bag when I opened it at the hotel in Lost Vegas,.. er Las Vegas. Most, if not all, of this can be replaced from eBay, but that requires the ‘justification’ exercise all over again. \^_\^ I have had the TSA inspect my checked bags before, but they usually don’t take anything, and usually leave a nice note saying they took a peak. I immediately called Delta and reported, but don’t expect much of a result. Yup, I’m already trolling eBay for some replacements. >Rant AlertEnd Rant Alert< for the loss of my Swiss Army Knife, which I have had for 25+ years. Interestingly enough, the Swiss Army Knife was in a separate compartment from the rest, so whomever took the stuff went through several compartments.

• Power-to-Go battery in green fleece glasses case
• T3 w/aluminum case
• Sharp Zaurus SL-5000 w/power cord
• Nikon binoculars in case
• T3 charger w/AA batteries
• Victorinox Swiss Army knife – Red Swiss Champ model
• Dlink WAP
• USB mini hub

    And most recently, I lent a Fisher Bullet pen with PDA Stylus tip to my youngest at a restaurant, so he could amuse himself with drawing on the paper placemat. This is a lesson I should have learned before, but taking hungry, energetic boys to a restaurant can be distracting. Needless to say, I no longer have the pen, and don’t remember getting it back at the restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant is an hours drive away, and probably wouldn’t have it anyway, which is what happened 2 months ago with a different pen I lent my son at a different restaurant. Well, it was still a Fisher bullet pen, but with out the stylus tip, and this one was a purple one I got for my birthday. I called that restaurant, but they hadn’t seen it. 😦

    I’m trying to stem the flow at this level, by paying more attention, and not bringing so much stuff with me. And then there is that one time when I needed the such and such from my fanny pack…… 🙂

Pictures from CEC 2007

    The Paris, as we are driven from the airport to the Paris/Bally complex.
    The Project Blackbox tour rig, on display in the main eating hall.

    Some of the 4000 engineers attending CEC 2007, eating lunch. I’m at this end using one of the rare electric outlets, so I could Skype video with my family at home.
    The UltraSPARC T2 product launch, with Andy Bechtelshiem, John Fowler, and ? on stage. Can’t you tell?

    My room is behind that ‘The Producers’ sign somewhere. Explaines the funny screened view from my room.
    One of the video balls at the CEC Party. Live video of the band was displayed on this ball.

    A fire eater at the CEC party. Smart doing it by a pool.
    My view for most of Wednesday, as I spent the day going home.

    Bye bye, Egypt, no wait, it was Las Vegas, yeah that’s it.
    A disappointing attempt to capture some of the amazing scenery I flew over on the way home to Boston.

All pictures courtesy of my Motorola RAZR V3xx. Explains a lot, don’t it. 🙂

Newton, the sequel?

    Here they come again, rumors of Apple delivering a new PDA, ala Newton, per this Slashdot article, Newton II. I’ve owned a Newton for several years, including my 2000 upgraded to a 2100. Great little PDA, with a dedicated community still going strong. Would a new PDA from Apple do everything the Newton could and can? Doubtful. Would it need to? Probably not. Despite protestations to the contrary, a new Apple PDA would not, and probably should not, need to follow in it’s Newton predecessor foot steps. The broader consumer market prefers things that fit in a pocket, and that was just not one of the Newton’s design points. Yup, there are people still using Newtons for just that reason. It had a healthy amount of screen real estate, and I admit that at times I find that nice. But I’m amongst the vocal minority, who have pretty specific and demanding wishes for a PDA, which the general populous does not. And if I want a device with a retail life longer than a year, it is going to have to appeal to the unwashed masses.

    As an example of the size direction devices are taking, Palm recently announced their newest entry in the Treo family, the Palm Centro. Kinda cute looking, but clearly not aimed at the aging baby boomer market, as the screen is smaller than previous Treos, as is the keyboard. Another small step in Palm’s turtle paced evolution of their products. Many faithful Palm owners continue to wait for the kind of innovation and compelling features that were the usual norm for early Palm devices. I’m one of those still waiting, and looking to replace my stolen backup T3 with another eBay purchased T3.

    Another example of the size matters state of affairs, and a rather sterling example to boot, is the Apple iPhone. I thought about linking to the iPhone, but if you haven’t heard of it, and likely seen and played with one already, you’re reading my blog from under a rock. This little gem is another case of superb design and engineering from Apple, and another one of their products I am dreaming of getting. I’ll probably wait until it gets a few more of the kind of handy little functions I like, or opens up more to someone else adding them, but I expect sooner or later to own one. While it’s size is small, Apple still appreciates the need for screen real estate, making the iPhone front mostly screen. It’s a small device, I would estimate at least 1/3rd the size of a Newton, and sports a lot of functionality, including some that goes beyond what the Newton could do and some that feels like a step backwards to some.

    The handwriting recognition engine in the Newton was both ridiculed and praised. Early on it got a tarnished reputation, but those who used it regularly, particularly with the later units, swore by it. As for me, by the time I got a Newton, I had been a long time Palm user and well trained in Graffiti, so rather than spend time with the Newton’s HWR, I got Palm’s Graffiti for the Newton and continued with what I knew. Neither of these are available on the iPhone. It does have a built-in on-screen keyboard, which is a bit different from most and so takes getting used to. Because of the multi-touch technology in use on the iPhone, it requires the use of a finger, and so stylus based text entry technologies like the Newton’s HWR and Palm’s Graffiti just don’t make sense. Is this a step forward or backward?

    So, would an iPhone based PDA from Apple make everyone happy? Would it sport more of the Newton’s functionality than the iPhone itself? Is the iTouch that device? time will tell, but for reasons stated above, there will never be a device that satisfies the Newton loyal and the new markets. The real question is whether there is a compromise device that will satisfy enough of a market, without feeling like a compromise device to us pickier types. Either way, I plan to keep my Newton for a long time.

More TDHing

    In this installment of my version of This Damn House, I do some minor work in a bathroom. My wife suggested we take baby steps, to at least make progress rather than procrastinating until we had ‘time’. So, in that spirit, here is the before :

    And after a quick bit of putty work, and some warm water to wipe of the old wall paper glue, et voila :

    Naturally, nothing is as simple or quick as it should be. The tile cement I had from several years back, that I had used on another towel rack and a few miscreant tiles, was hard as a rock, oddly enough, so I had to work a trip to HD into my schedule. This gave me time to wipe the glue off the walls in small time slots, so as not to overwork my mouse using arm. Oh yeah, and I figured the kids wouldn’t be using that bathroom until the towel rack had time to cure, but within 5 minutes my oldest was in there and for some reason found he needed to lean on that towel rack, which of course gave way. Doh. All in all, it worked out OK. What’s next?

It’s a Lady Bug Day

Lady Bugs on the ceiling
Originally uploaded by Dr. Agonfly.

    In the Spring or Fall, when there is an unseasonably warm day, we have what my family calls a ‘Lady Bug Day’. sometimes it will be a dragonfly day as well, but the Lady Bugs are more obvious. I noticed them through our kitchen window mid day, and forgot until I went into our bedroom, to see this on our ceiling. We are used to them, as for years there would usually be a half dozen or so Lady Bugs handing out in a corner of the ceiling all year long. They don’t usually get in the way, and eat other less appreciated bugs, so they are welcome to stay. Besides, since I usually try to capture and release any insect or other living thing that makes it’s way uninvited into the house, I’d have my hands full with this mob. And yes, today was unseasonably warm.

Blog Action Day – Environment

    Seeings that it is Blog Action Day, an effort devoted to testing the solidarity of bloggers world wide to speak out on a single topic in a single day, and the topic is about the environment, I decided to blog about something going on in my life right now. Very dynamically too. In some of my previous blogs, I have commented on cohousing, and more specifically my current involvement in Mosaic Commons, a cohousing community that is buuilding in Berlin, MA.

    One of the usual values of cohousing is an interest in environmentally friendly design. There are a number of ways that various communities express this, including pedestrian focused access, tight heat envelopes for the homes, wood pellet heating, solar heating, all the way to more devoted efforts like the EcoVillage at Ithaca, NY. We are doing as much as we can, and are currently dealing with the difficult balance of cost cutting with enhanced green design, or more specifically, do we cut the number of windows in our units to help defray the cost of going to triple pane windows.

    I like natural light the best, and feel that personally and for others in my family, the amount of natural light has a real effect on our moods. Can I quantify it, no. Doesn’t make it less real, nor any less important to me. So I definitely don’t like the idea of cutting the number of windows. And I have trepidation about triple paning as well. I have done just a quick bit of Googling to get a better sense of what I already basically knew, that the more panes of glass, the less light that is getting through. How much of a difference is what I didn’t really have a sense for. According to one paper I found, it can be up to as much as a 44% reduction in the amount of light, depending on what coatings, etc are used on the triple pane window. Wow. So to reduce the number of windows on top of that kind of potential light reduction really makes me nervous.

    Another aspect of cohousing that is interesting is the decision making process. I have to admit that, despite it’s challenges and occasional failings, the consensus process we use at Mosaic seems to work pretty well. It is based on certain principles, including only blocking a decision when it is for the good of the group. Kinda odd when you think about it. If everyone else (i.e. the group) wants a certain outcome to the decision, a single person can basically block it for the good of ‘the group’. I’ll have to puzzle on that some more, but suffice it to say that I have accepted and tried to work within this framework.

    Which means that even though I have what I think is good reason to not want to reduce windows and triple pane, I have to consider what is best for the group if I want to block that decision. OK, particularly at this stage of development, we need to be sensitive to costs. But there is value in long term investments like triple panes that will save us money over the long term. but if the group thinks this is best, how do I justify saying it is best for the group not to do this? Is the loss of a sale, should I back out because of this decision, something bad for the group, bad enough? Is my unqantifiable sense that this will be less good for everyone’s mood in the community defendable enough? What about the fact that I may be able to restore the windows in my unit to their original design locations and sizes, but that would not help other households who could not afford to do that? Will I even be able to afford to do that myself? When do I stop asking questions and tell my wife to make the decision? 🙂

    Not an easy process, but one that I hope shows the true metal of this community, as that is the primary reason my wife and I are doing this. We have a great home, with a nice piece of property, but we want to give that up for the comfort and strength of a community of friends that have similar values and that we will enjoy living with. It’s during difficult times that you get to see more of what people are like behind their social faces, and I hope this will be another opportunity for the community of Mosaic Commons to grow and prosper.

Open Standard I/O

    I changed roles at Sun, and am now a Technical Specialist focusing on our x64 technologies. While there is always an element of time spent on both customer relationships and technical skills development in pre-sales engineering roles, I prefer a balance more weighted towards technical depth and skills development/maintenance. I’ve always felt that as a technical professional, you have more credibility if you have spent at least some time working with the technology and products.

    Part of coming up to speed in a new role is getting a better understanding of the available resources. An important resource for sales is the ever present presentation. And while I appreciate the efforts of marketing to help promote our products, I need to be prepared to avoid potential rat holes by knowing the details of the background material used in developing the slides. If I’m hemming and hawing when presenting because I don’t have confidence in the slides, I loose credibility. I get particularly wary when ambiguous or overloaded buzz words are used, such as ‘open’, ‘free’, ‘grid’, ‘utility computing’, ‘blade computing’, etc.

    Can you believe it, it took me 2 paragraphs to finally get to the meat of this post? 🙂 Sun has an impressive family of modular computing systems, or blade computers as they are commonly characterized. Among the many values of our modular computing family is the use of industry-standard open I/O. Ah, buzz words. What does that mean, industry-standard open I/O, and what is the benefit? It means that our compute modules use the same industry-standard open I/O technologies that our rack servers use, PCI-Express (PCIe). Instead of having I/O daughter cards on the compute module itself, that then need to connect electrically through the backplane to an I/O card in the chassis, making maintenance and reconfiguration more difficult, we pass the PCIe lanes through the passive backplane to PCI-SIG industry-standard PCIe Express Module slots at the back of the chassis. Simpler and more reliable.

    What is the benefit? There are several. Since the PCIe Express Module slots are separate from the compute module, you can easily hot swap PCIe Express Module cards, without needing to power down and remove the corresponding compute module, enhancing tool-less maintenance. Instead of having to remove the compute module, swap a daughter card and also swap an I/O card in the chassis, you can just swap the I/O card in the chassis. Fewer steps, less chance for human error, quicker. Sounds good to me.

    By sticking with industry-standard I/O, compatibility with 3rd party cards is enhanced, as is design and testing. PCIe is a well established standard, developed by a group of companies, and based on years of experience with previous generations of I/O interfaces. There are chip sets implementing the PCIe standard from several companies, and a well developed ecosystem of people and resources with the skills for designing it into systems. This makes it easy for 3rd party companies and partners, like QLogic, to develop cards for use in these modular systems, and the cards are compatible with other vendor’s systems. For instance, I understand that NEC and Fujitsu use PCIe Express Modules for some of their systems, and others are planning on using this standard.

    Another benefit of using an industry-standard I/O technology is that as technology gets enhanced, and it inevitably does, maintaining compatibility is easier. Our implementation of the PCIe industry-standard I/O technology is forward-compatible with PCI G2 and IOV, adding to the investment protection provided by Sun’s modular computing platforms. Building systems that take advantage of the well established design and years of testing experience of industry standard open PCIe makes for higher reliability and more choice, something I can talk to customers with confidence about.

US T2 Server Launch

    I am attending today’s product launch by Sun at CEC 2007. John Fowler is leading the launch with Rick Hetherington and Andy Bechtolsheim showing the new products, and Ichiro Hirose, VP, Global Marketing, Fujitsu representing Fujitsu.

    The products launched include :

• The T6320 modular server for use in the Sun Blade 6000 chassis with the US-T2 CPU, 64GB RAM, 176Gbps I/O, and built in ILOM.
• The X5120 server, using the US-T2 CPU, 64GB RAM, 2TB of storage, 80Gbps I/O, and built in ILOM in a 1RU form factor.
• The X5220 server, using the US-T2 CPU, 64GB RAM, 2TB of storage, 80Gbps I/O, and built in ILOM in a 2RU form factor.

    Next, Marshal Choy came up and did a demo of LDOMs, including a mention of the Solaris 8 Migration Assistant for running Solaris 8 in a zone. Just one element of the great virtualization technologies built into these new servers.

    A customer, Jason Turner of Mediasite, spoke of the kind of needs his company has and how these systems help meet that need. And these systems are available through Sun’s Try and Buy program, so go try one out. Q&A and Andy B. is moving at his usual speed. 🙂
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CEC 2007 Day 3

    Another day, another General Session. Today’s started with a neat drumming act. Color of the day is green, representing an Eco Responsibily sub theme of today’s Our World theme.

    Dave Douglas was the first presenter, talking about Eco Responsibility including some of what Sun has already done to reduce GHG, carbon footprint, power usage, etc. Some nice progress, like a new Bay Area data center that increased compute resources by 450%, while reducing power usage by 60%. More needs to be done, and it’s happening.

    Next up, Jonathan Schwartz. He covered 3 questions on the $2B+ we invest annually in research and development – For whom?, In what?, And how? Some other topics : side comment on his ZFS in Leopard statement, NetApps lawsuit, Solaris download in Antarctica, lack of EA games on iPhone (Java), open sourcing Sun Ray.

    I like the interaction enablement through email, sms, and IM, particularly for a large group of 4000 folks interacting with a single presenter. Let’s you write and ask question when you think of it. And it’s easier than walking to a mike. While I haven’t tried out Second Life, it is being used to make these sessions available to the thousands of engineers not here, and they show the Second Life conference room sometimes, where there is an avatar wearing a Batman costume.

    I’m looking forward to the product launch later today. More to come….

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CEC 2007 Opening General Session

    Day 2 at Sun’s CEC 2007 is the first full day of content. Soul In The Machine is the act that started the session with Vegas style entertainment. I was interested in the stunt kite one of the performers was flying, which did seem to be real, as I saw the ‘strings’ collapse when the performer exited.

    Dan Berg starts the content describing our new CE 2.0, web 2.0 based social networking, content and collaboration service, for Sun’s Customer Enpineering community. The CE community includes Field Engineers, Systems Engineers, Technical Specialists, etc at Sun, as well as Sun’s partners.

    Hal Stern took over discussing scale, direction, etc. This is in line with today’s theme ‘Our Universe’, including his interest in astronomy as a young man, and his view of Saturn through a telescope.

    James Baty is now delivering a talk on ‘Red Shift’, as Greg Popadopolous describes the fast changing massive scale opportunities taking place in the world today.

    More to come ……
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